Southern France is the perfect place to launch Mercedes-Benz’s new SLK, and it’s not because the roads are twistier than a hangman’s noose. It’s not just the glamour of Cap Ferrat and Monte Carlo, either, though Mercedes might cheerfully claim anything that rubbed off. Nope, it’s the never-ending vertical cliff faces, tunnels, and canyons that make these cars the stars here. They are constantly repaying you for every planted throttle and the twenty-two seconds you spent folding the steel roof into the short trunk.

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